My female ancestors - Muriel Singleton 1926 - 1997

I have always been interested in tracing my female ancestors as well as the direct line of my Green male line. I find the lives our female ancestors lived to be very interesting, and often, misleading due to the fact that we don't always know what occupation they had outside the family home; as these occupations were usually not recorded on census entries, marriage certificates etc. We know they worked hard in the home, this in the days before domestic appliances made housework easier, in the days before electricity when all work had to be done either in daylight or by candle or lamplight. We have programmes like Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm to thank for giving us an insight into the daily lives of our female ancestors and these programmes bring to life what it must have been like to work a long day in the house, up at 6am and often not getting to bed before midnight. So the next few blog entries are a homage to all my female ancestors. 

Starting of course, with my wonderful Mam, Muriel Singleton born 5 September 1926 the third child and oldest daughter of my grandparents Jack and Nancy Singleton, joining Chris born 1920 and Jim born 1922, she was born on the Isle of Walney, Barrow in Furness in Lancashire. When she was 12, the family moved to Hull in East Yorkshire, moving into 120 Lomond Road, Spring Bank where they were to stay until my Nana moved out of there in the 1970s.

 Mam taken during towards the end of the War

Two days before Mam's 13th birthday on 5th September 1939 war was declared as World War II got under way. By this time the family had expanded to include Jack born in 1930 and Jean born 1937,  baby Evelyn the youngest child of my grandparents was born on 3 October 1939. During the war, Jean was sent to family at Keswick, but Evelyn remained with the family. Both the oldest boys joined up, Chris into the navy and Jim the army. For Muriel it must have been a hard time, helping her mam with the new baby, coping with missing her brothers and her younger sister, and a year later aged 14, starting her first job with Hull Printer's as an Assistant Compositor. She was to work here for the following six years until she left in August 1946 to marry my Dad, Derek Alexander Green.

I remember mam telling me about using gravy thinned down with water on her legs with a line drawn up the back with an eyeliner pencil to mimic the look of stockings. Of turning up to work one day during the war to find that the printers had been bombed during the night and there was just the ruins left. Hull Printers survived and moved into temporary premises for the rest of the war. At a dance in late 1944 early 1945, when she was 18, she met my Dad - she told me that it was a Ladies Ask Me dance, a chance for the women to choose who they wanted to dance with, not the other way round - Mam chose Dad and the rest as they say is history. 

In the summer of 1945 Mam spent some time at the Northcliffe convalescent home in Filey after an operation to remove kidney stones - she was to suffer with kidney problems for several years. That visit was to trigger a lifelong love of Filey in my Mam and we spent several happy family holidays there in later years. After she returned to Hull, she began courting Derek, his 1946 diary tells of meeting her off the bus as she came home from work, going to the pictures, dancing, into town and eventually their engagement early in 1946.

On 3 August 1946 she got married at St Martin's Church Hull

This photo shows from left to right, my Nana Green, Ethel holding Dad's youngest brother Peter, my Granddad Green, Marcus, Uncle Ron, Dad's older brother and best man - Dad, Mam, Aunt Nancy, Dad's sister, Granddad Singleton, Jack and Nancy my Nana Singleton, with Uncle Chris in his navy uniform. At the front are my aunts Jean and Evelyn.


Mum and Dad honeymooned in Keswick in the Lake District and the next photo was taken on their honeymoon:

After her marriage, Muriel settled down to married life in rented rooms on Wistow Grove, Gipsyville - eventually they were to get a Corporation Prefab before moving into a house on Norton Grove on Gipsyville. Mam and Dad were to have five children, Christine born in 1948, Linda in 1950, Stephen in 1957, myself in 1960 and Robert in 1963. Mam returned to work when Steve, Robert and I were young - first working at Humbrol paint factory down Hedon Road in Hull and later after we'd moved to west Hull at Needler's sweet factory making boxes and finally at Zerny's Dry Cleaners; first in the canteen, then later in the sewing room.


Throught this time she worked part time, juggling bringing up a family with helping with the household income. There were hard times in the 1950s when Derek had to give up his job as a Sheet Metal Worker and retrain for office work, but they got through this time and still managed to get some family holidays at the seaside.

This photos shows me aged about seven, Mam, Robert about three and Stephen about ten on the beach at Filey, you can just make out the brig in the background.


Mam retired when she was 60 in 1986 and she and my father enjoyed coach holidays to Scotland. However, her health was not brilliant, she had been diagnosed with diabetes in the early 1980s and had high blood pressure; but it was in 1995 that she contracted bowel cancer and though an operation extended her life by nearly two years, she died on 24 March 1997. I will always remember how brave she was during her illness and I still do, and always will miss her.

Mum and Dad enjoying a dance on one of their holidays.

The importance of witnesses in family history research

One thing I've discovered over the years is not to ignore the names of witnesses on marriage entries, these can often lead to discovering other family members, or help to confirm you've got the right person. To give a few examples from my own research:

I spent a long time trying to track down my 3xgreat grandfather John Green Sayers' brother Thomas after he appeared on the 1841 census with his parents and brother as a 5 week old baby living in Grimsby.

By 1851 their mother Harriet was dead and their father, a mariner was away in Dover. John was living with his grandmother Mary and her 3rd husband Benjamin Willman as their son John Willman and his younger brother William was listed as William Sare grandson.

There was no trace of Thomas, no matter what search I did I couldn't find him in the 1851 census, so I checked the death indexes and burial entries for both Grimsby and Hull to see if he had died, but still no luck. Looking for John Green Sayers or John Willman in the 1861 census, I found him living at 8 Chapel Lane as John Willman with his wife Nancy and his occupation given as Sloopman. With John continuing to use both Willman and Sayers almost interchangeably, it took me a while to find his marriage in the General Register Office (GRO) indexes; but find him I did marrying Nancy Fish on 14 November 1859 at Hull Holy Trinity church, and one of the witnesses was Thomas Sayers. Could this be our missing brother?

If Thomas were alive and attending his brother's wedding in 1859, then he should be on the 1861 census, and a search revealed him on board The Humber in Victoria Dock, Hull as a 19 year old apprentice; and I've been able to find him on every subsequent census since then until his death in 1895. Though I still can't find him on the 1851 census, no matter what I try and the only conclusion I can come to is that he was with his grandmother and brothers but for some reason was missed on the census.

More recently I've been trying to discover what happened to the two sons of Mary Grant and Richard Amos, Mary whose first husband was John Green had two children with John, Harriet who later married Ethelbert Peter Sayers and John; she then married Richard Amos and had two boys Richard and Charles before marrying for the third and final time to Benjamin Willman. The boys were living with Mary and Benjamin in 1841, but by 1851 they had left home, whilst checking indexes and the IGI, I found a marriage for a Charles Ameers at Holy Trinity Hull in 1859 to Martha Satchell and as I had previously seen Amos written as Amers I thought it was worth checking it out. A visit to the archives in Beverley, East Yorkshire gave me the opportunity to check out the entry in the parish register, which I found for 27th December 1859 and one of the witnesses was John Green Sayers, the other his wife of 6 weeks Nancy; giving me confirmation that this was indeed the Charles Amos, or Ameers as he seems to have preferred his name to be spelt, John's half-uncle.

Charles also gives his father's name as Benjamin Ameers Sloopman, instead of Richard Amos/Ameers sailor Benjamin Willman being his step father.

And a final example from this family. In 1883, John Green Sayers married Eliza Baker at Holy Trinity in Hull. It took me awhile to tie this Eliza Baker up to my 3xgreat aunt Eliza Green who was born in 1831 and was the younger brother to my 3xgreat grandfather JamesGreen 1820 - 1854. Eliza had married several times, inlcuding in 1868 to a James Baker. It was only when I received the marriage certificate for her wedding to John Green Sayers, did I tie it all up, not only was Eliza's father down as Thomas Green, but one of the witnesses at the wedding was Leonard Farrow Green, the grandson of James Green. This also answered one of those questions we often ask ourselves how did our grandparents etc., meet; well in Leonard's case he married Ethel Roseman Sayers daughter of John Green Sayers and Nancy Fish and step daughter to Leonard's great aunt Eliza.

These are not the only examples I have found in my family and others, where the witness at a wedding has helped to confirm a relationship. Sometimes I feel family history is a great big jigsaw and we have to put the pieces together - these kind of discoveries can make all the differences in getting the right pieces to fit together.

Nana Green - Ethel Maud Pagan 1900 - 1973

Saying “My Nana was a Pagan” usually got me a few strange looks (visions of Wicca no doubt), but it’s true.  She was born Ethel Maud Pagan on the 24 May 1900 to Thomas Naismith Pagan and Edith (nee Dobney) in Hull, East Yorkshire.  She was an only child, and the family lived with her grandfather Dobney who was a Ticket Collector and Guard for the N.E.R. Her father Thomas was a nautical instrument maker.

 Taken about 1902/1903

She grew up before the First World War, and went to work during the War at Paragon Railway Station working for the N.E.R. in the typing pool there. In 1922, she married Marcus Alexander Green, a young Merchant Navy Officer and they set up home with their young son Ronald in Withernsea, East Yorkshire.
Two more children followed, Derek born in 1924 and Nancy born in 1926. In the 1930s, the family returned to Hull where they eventually settled in a home on Boothferry Road.  The Second World War loomed, and Marcus once again fought in the Royal Navy; Ronald followed his father to sea, though Derek, due to ill health, was unable to fight.  In 1944, a late addition to the family, Peter was born, a year later Ronald married his sweetheart Muriel, Derek’s wedding to another Muriel took place shortly before Ron and Muriel with their toddler son Wesley set sail for a new life in Canada.

Ethel remained devoted to her family, bringing little Peter up with the help of his big sister Nancy. Derek, Muriel and their young family were frequent visitors during these years. Marcus died first in 1966 after a long illness that confined him to the sofa in the front room (my only memories of him).  Ethel took the opportunity offered by Ron and his second wife Verna to visit them in Canada (Muriel had sadly died in the 50s) and see her Canadian grandchildren.  In 1973, Ron brought his family to England for a holiday, but sadly Ethel was very ill and despite rallying round tremendously whilst Ron was in Hull, she died on the 9th August that year just after Ron left to visit relatives down south.

 Part of a larger photo taken at Ron & Muriel's wedding

I’d stayed with her the previous year, a whole week during the summer holidays, I remember the Munich Olympics were on whilst I was with her.  She complained of my cold feet in bed on a night and that I fidgeted too much for her, but that didn’t stop her inviting me to stay.  She was a lovely Nana, and it was sad to lose her when we did.

L-R Marcus Green with a young Peter standing in front of him, Ethel Green with Derek Green behind and Muriel his wife next to him

L-R Marcus, Derek, Ethel, Nancy, Muriel, Christine - in front - Linda holding Carol with Stephen in front of his Nana - taken in 1960

Nana Singleton and the names that got me interested in family history

When I was a child, my Nana Singleton used to come and stay with us over Christmas and often ended up sharing my bedroom - which meant I had to give up my bed to her and sleep on the Z bed borrowed from my sister. Anyone who's ever slept on a Z bed will know that they will freqently for no apparent reason dump the sleeper onto the floor in the middle of the night!  But, I loved my Nana and really didn't mind giving up my bed for her - she had been born in Kilmarnock in Scotland in 1900 and though she'd lived in England (first Barrow in Furness in Lancashire and then Hull in East Yorkshire) since she was about 15 or 16, she retained her lovely Scots burr for the rest of her 94 years.

Nana Singleton in the 1960s at Cowden, East Yorkshire

Often during the nights she stayed before we both slept, she would tell me about when she had gone to a "big house" as a skivvy when she was about 14 and about my mother's habit of sucking the cuffs of the arms of her coats when she was a little girl. My Nana's name was Agnes Caldwell Gray, though she was always known as Nancy, probably to differentiate her from her mother another Agnes; I can remember Nana telling me that he middle name was an old family name from Scotland. She was the eldest of five, two girls and three boys - the others being - John Wilson Gray born 1905 in Scotland, Margaret Colville Gray born 1908 in Troon, Ayrshire, James Crighton Gray born 1911 in Troon, Ayrshire and lastly David Gray born 1916 in Barrow in Furnace, Lancashire, England. There had also been two other children, both girls named Jane Neil Gray, one born and died in 1899 and another born and died in 1901.

 back row - John Wilson Gray, Margaret Colville Gray, James Crichton Gray, front row - James Gray (1877 - 1955), David Gray and Agnes Caldwell Gray - photo taken in the early 1920s

When my Nana was in her 80s, there was a family tree drawn up of her parents, brothers, sister, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - it was this basic family tree that got me started years later on tracing my family history; and I started with Nana's family as I was fascinated by the middle names she and her siblings had and wished to trace them to their roots. It was then, pure luck that started me off with Scottish Genealogy, where their statutory registers for birth, marriage and death give more information than their English counterparts.

It was fun searching the records, building a family tree, tracing the family in ninetheenth century censuses and discovering new surnames and families, and I did track down all the middle names of the Gray children, most of them to their origins in the family.

My nana - Agnes Caldwell Gray - her paternal grandmother was Agnes Cathcart Slessor Caldwell born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in 1858 to Robert Caldwell and Mary Slessor - she married John Wilson Gray in 1876 in Kilmarnock and my Nana's father James Gray was born in 1877.

Uncle John - was named after his paternal grandfather John Wilson Gray who was born in Kilmarnock in 1853 to James Gray and Elizabeth Orr - though I'm still not sure when the Wilson came from yet.

Aunty Maggie - was named after her maternal grandmother Jane's sister Margaret who married an Alexander Colville in Dundonald Scotland in 1860

Uncle James - his middle name was Crighton or Crichton and this proved to be his maternal grandfather's name - Crichton Smith was born in Ballantrae, Argylle in 1820 and married Jane Neil in Symington Ayrshire in 1871 - thus also solving the name of the two young sisters who died in infancy who were named Jane Neil Gray.

Uncle David - though he didn't have a middle name, he was named after his father's Uncle David Gray

My Nana married John Singleton (known as Jack) on Walney Island, Barrow in Furness on 5 June 1920 and they went on to have five children, Christopher Chapman Singleton 1920 - 1974; James Singleton 1922 - 1982; my mother Muriel Singleton 1926 - 1997; Jack Singleton 1930 - 2006; Jean Neil Singleton 1937 and Evelyn Singleton 1939 - all barr Evelyn were born in Barrow in Furness, Eveyln been born here in Hull after the family moved here for my Grandfather to work at Shipham's a local ship building company (who now specialise in valves).

Since I started tracing my family tree, I have gone on to trace my English families to Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Kent, Lancashire & Cumbria - all from becoming interested in where the names in my Nana's family came from. Like many of us I wish now I could go back and talk to my Nana on one of our Christmas evening talks more about her life and her relatives, what more could I have learnt...

Nana and Granddad Singleton with their first 7 grandchildren aboout 1951

Nana Singleton (in the middle) at her 80th birthday party  with 10 of her grandchildren and two great grandchildren - I am second from left in the middle row (with the large glasses!!) - taken 21 March 1980

Ethelbet Peter Sayers 1820 - 1900

This Case Study appeared in Your Family Tree Magazine No. 99 February 2011

Master of a Grimsby Fishing Boat

When I first starting investigating my ancestor Ethelbert Sayers, it was with difficulty; I kept coming across references to an Ethelbert Sayer/s and a Peter Sayer/s, both appeared to have been born in Kent in Herne Bay (or Herring Bay as one census entry had it) between 1820 and 1825. It was only when I had accumulated several documents and certificates that I was able to say with certainty that the Ethelbert Sayer born in Herne Bay in Kent in 1820 and baptised there on the 4 August that year, was the same person as the Peter Sayers who appeared on the 1841 census with his wife Harriet and two young children, John aged 2 years and Thomas 5 weeks. Ethelbert it seems preferred to be called Peter, and one can only wonder if that’s because he didn’t like his given name, yet if that were the case, he wouldn’t have attempted to give his name to his sons.

Ethelbert Sayers settled, with his wife and family, a third son William was born in 1843 and a daughter named Harriet after her mother in 1845, in Grimsby where he was a mariner probably employed in the coastal shipping business. In 1846, the younger Harriet died aged only 3 months, and tragedy was to visit the family again in 1847 when Ethelbert’s wife died of heart disease on the 22^nd September on a visit to her mother and step father in Hull. Mary and Benjamin Wilman were to take on the three little boys to bring up in Hull, whilst their father continued living in Grimsby on his own. In the 1851 census, Ethelbert is enumerated as Peter Sayer, a Visitor in Dover occupation given as Mariner, and in 1861 he is living at 21 Flour Square, a 40 year old widower, occupation given as Fisherman.

 Many of the original skippers of Grimsby smacks became owners, usually of no more than one, but some made big business out of it. The crew lists are kept at the North East Lincolnshire Archives in Grimsby, and it was here a couple of years ago that I first found Ethelbert or Peter Sayers mentioned as skipper on fishing vessels.

The indexes to these crew lists now appear on NE Lincs archives website, and searching these, I found that Ethelbert appears as skipper throughout the 1880s and 1890s on the John Shapley, the Emperor, the Frolic, the Kerry and the Alethia. All these smacks were owned by James Meadows, who appears to have owned about 25 fishing smacks, Ethelbert sailed exclusively for him between 1884 and 1893. In 1883, certification of skippers and mates of fishing boats were introduced, and on a visit to the National Archives in Kew, I found Ethelbert’s certificate in BT130/1, which is kept on microfilm; his certificate number is 0596 and it was issued on 13^th December 1883, this also gives some details of his voyages on the John Shapley.

In 1864, Ethelbert had married again to Mary Ann Fraser, the widow of another fisherman, by this time his children from his first marriage were grown up and married themselves. Ethelbert and Mary Ann were to have nine children from 1865 to 1876, but only the last born was to live to adulthood. On a visit to the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies for a weekend workshop, I was working in their library when I first came across the sad tale of the deaths of Ethelbert’s children. Working through the microfiche of burials for the parish of Great Grimsby, I kept finding burials for young children:

Mary Ann Sayers buried 12 September 1866, Flower Square aged 6 weeks

Ethelbert Sayers buried 15 December 1865, Flower Square, aged 6 weeks

Ethelbert Sayers buried 18 May 1868, Flower Square, aged 8 weeks

Frederick W Sayers, buried 10 July 1870, Flower Square, aged 3 weeks

Mary Ann Sayers buried 9 August 1873, Flower Square aged 3 weeks

Ethelbert Sayers, buried 21 October 1874, Flower Square, Aged 5 weeks

Ethel Rosamund  buried 18 December 1874, Flower Square, aged 2 years

Alfred Sayers buried 27 December 1874, Flower Square, aged 5 years

By the time I had finished going through the burials, there were tears in my eyes, so many young children dying in their first weeks of life, with only two, Alfred and Ethel surviving to live for a paltry few years. Between 1865 and 1874 Ethelbert & Mary Ann lost eight of their nine children, aged from three weeks to five years, all whilst living at Flower Square, surely an inappropriate name - the only child to survive to adulthood from this marriage was Isabella Ethel born in 1876, the youngest child, she wouldn't have known any of her brothers & sisters, how precious she must have been to her parents.

Sending for three of the death certificates (using the online ordering system at www.gro.gov.uk) for Ethelbert who died in 1865 aged six weeks, Ethel Roseman who died 1874 aged two years and Alfred who also died in 1874 aged 5 years, I discovered that they had all died from childhood diseases that were prevalent in the overcrowded urban areas of the mid nineteenth century. Ethelbert died of Diarrhoea, Ethel of Scarlet Fever and Alfred from Diphtheria, all treatable and preventable today in the 21^st century.

Grimsby, like most urban areas in the nineteenth century, was filled with overcrowded unsanitary houses built by speculative builders to house the workers, in this case the fishermen near to their work. Flour or Flower Square was at the end of Victoria Street near to the docks, in his book, A History of Grimsby, Edward Gillett describes some of the homes people were living in; there were ‘... houses where the basement floor was laid upon the ground, no joists put between, and water oozing up’, there were ‘three houses with an unpaved yard which ... was contaminated by leaking closet boxes’. These insanitary conditions must have been hard on the families living in them as they struggled to make a living. It is no wonder then that in the late 1870s the family moved to Humber Street in nearby Clee with Weelsby, an area of better housing and cleaner air.

Ethelbert continued fishing until he was well in to his seventies, I have had sight of a memoriam card for him, that stated he was known as Old Peter and had been well known in the town and well respected. It also states that when the New Dock was opened in the 1850s, Ethelbert walked the full length of the dock under water in a heavy diving suit, that must have been a sight to be seen. I have a great admiration for Ethelbert, he moved north to find work, his first wife died young and he suffered sorrow and tragedy with the death of so many of his children from his second marriage. He died in 1900 and is buried in Scartho Road cemetery in Grimsby. He must have been a man of strong fortitude and I feel as though I know him well, and am proud to have him for an ancestor.

Childhood illness and death

Death in childhood was all too common in the nineteenth century, families from all walks of life experienced sickness and death of their children. Childhood diseases were rampant, with diphtheria, scarlet fever and diarrhoea being killers and many young children succumbed to outbreaks of measles, cholera and small pox. Many families could not afford a doctor, and often relied on folk remedies or patent medicines, which could frequently be dangerous in themselves. Attitudes to death in the nineteenth century were often tempered by the belief that the loved one would be in a better world, many more people than today attended church and the teachings of the bible were often a comfort to families. Funerals could be expensive, but there were Friendly Societies, burial clubs and savings clubs that working class people could use to insure against the paupers burial.

Diphtheria

A respiratory disease that is contagious and causes an inflammation of the throat which makes breathing difficult and can cause asphyxiation. Epidemics often broke out in overcrowded urban areas, tubes inserted into the throat could stop victims from suffocating, a vaccine was introduced in the early part of the twentieth century.

Burial records

Often overlooked, these records can help fill out the missing gaps in your family tree and help build up a picture of your ancestor’s lives. Parish register burials can often be accessed on microfiche or microfilm at the archives centres, local history libraries or specialist libraries such as the IHGS or Society of Genealogists.

Fleeting System

This was introduced in the mid-nineteenth century to make fishing more efficient. Several smacks would sail together and offload their catch packed in ice to the carrier by rowing boat, the carrier take the fish to the home port before returning to the fleet once more.

Sources

Gillett, Edward, A History of Grimsby, 1970 Oxford University Press

Tunstall, Jeremy, The Fishermen: The sociology of an extreme occupation, 1962 MacGibbon and Kee